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F U C U S Hypoglossum.
Sharp Tongue-bearing Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algee.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. ChaH. Stem branched, winged. Leaves linear-
lanceolate, acute, flat, entire, proliferous, minutely
reticulated. Tubercles globose, sessile.
Syn. Fucus Hypoglossum. Woodward T r . o f Linn.
Soc. v. 2j 30. t. 7. and v. 3. 113. Turn. Syn. 17.
W ith .v . 4. 95. Hull. 316.
T h i s seems to be not so rare as the foregoing, though by no
means common. Mr. Crowe found it growing on the rocks
at Cromer, from whence probably it is occasionally washed
towards the Yarmouth beach. It has.a'lso been found on the
south and west coasts of Britain. It beara fruit in July and
August, not in the winter; which affords Mr. Turner another
argument for separating it from his F. ruscifolius.
With that species it accords in general habit, size, and
fructification; but is of a brighter more beautiful rose-colour,
and the leaves are always sharp-pointed. Their Structure is
uniformly and very minutely reticulated, without those jointed
veins which characterize the former.
If we may offer a conjecture respecting the two different
positions in which the seeds are found, often on the same
frond, we should guess that they may be emitted laterally from
the ripe tubercle into the substance of the leaf on each side of
the midrib; after which the mere extension of the leaf in
growing will account for their being drawn out into two lines.
So they must remain till the plant decays, and disperses them
in the water.